The Strongest Mega Evolution Returns
(Outsiders Sidestory)
Chapter 00: Preparing for the Ultimate Challenge
Scene 1
Alain took a deep breath as he took in the sights. It had been quite some time since he'd last been to Lumiose City. He had spent the past few months traveling around Kalos, researching Mega Stones for Professor Sycamore. Now, the professor had all the data he needed for the near future, so now it was time for-
"Are you going to stand there all day?" an impatient voice asked from a ways ahead of him. Looking ahead, he saw that Mairin had already run off in the general direction of Professor Sycamore's lab.
"Wait up!" Alain called back, running off towards his friend. Mairin continued on at her usual pace, before suddenly stopping, and looking down at her feet. Her partner Pokémon, Chespie, had stopped, tugging on her leg and pointing.
"What's up?" Alain asked as he finally caught up.
"Chespie seems interested in that girl for some reason," the shorter trainer noted, slightly confused as she looked towards where Chespie was pointing. Alain followed her gaze, and found a girl with long, pink hair, staring intently at a map. For a moment, Alain wondered just why the Chespin was interested in the rosette, but he quickly had an answer, one that still filled him with regret. Chespie, ever since the incident where he had fallen into a coma after an encounter with a Zygarde Core, the Spiny Nut Pokémon had become slightly better at sensing odd energy. Not as skilled as a Psychic-types or Aura sensitive Pokémon, but his senses were more attuned to those odd signatures. Alain and Mairin had actually been using those senses to find Mega Stones and other peculiarities. If he was interested in that girl, then what could that mean?
"Do you need some help?" Mairin called out, startling Alain out of his thoughts. The other girl also jumped a bit, before turning around. She stared for a moment, then sighed in what appeared to be resignation.
"Er, yes," she admitted. "I'm looking for this City's Gym?" Mairin and Alain both paused at that, before Mairin started giggling.
"It's right over there, silly!" She laughed, pointing at the large tower at the center of the city.
"The Prism Tower?" The other girl asked, gazing in its direction. Her obvious confusion only made Mairin laugh even harder, only to be cut off by a grunt from her companion.
"Don't laugh. It's rude," he admonished, before turning to the pink-haired trainer. "But yes, the Prism Tower doubles as the Lumiose City Pokémon Gym." Seeing the embarrassment on the girl's face, he added, "Don't worry, it's a surprisingly common mistake. They really should mark that detail on the city maps."
"They really should," the girl muttered, shaking off her embarrassment. "Thank you very much for your help!" With that she ran off towards the tower. As she ran off, fond memories flooded back into his mind, and he allowed himself to faintly smile.
"Another trainer taking on the League, huh? Brings back memories, doesn't it, Alain?" Mairin asked, a fond smile on her face as she basked in the memories.
"You make it sound like it was years and years ago. It was only last year, you know," Alain chided. He then looked up at the sky. 'Someday soon...we'll battle again, Ash.'
Chespie let out a small noise, reminding the two of why they'd noticed the girl in the first place.
"Ah," his Trainer gasped. "Think we should have-"
"We can't just stop a Trainer on the street and ask 'hey, have you been exposed to any weird energy lately,' now can we?" Alain pointed out. "If she's taking on the Pokémon League challenge, we'll probably see her again. For now, let's get to Professor Sycamore's lab."
"Well..." Mairin started. "Alright then. Last one there pays for lunch!" And with that, she ran off at full speed once again. Alain sighed in resignation, both used to and fond of the girl's antics, before throwing a PokéBall into the air.
"If that's what you want." He smiled as Charizard flapped his mighty wings.
Mairin gasped as a very familiar Charizard flew by. Alain, riding that Charizard, was smirking down at her.
"Hey! No fair!"
"Looks like you're paying for lunch," Alain pointed out.
"You only won because you cheated!" Mairin declared.
"You're the one who randomly declared that we were racing. You never said I couldn't ride Charizard." Mairin pouted for a bit, before giggling.
"What's so funny?"
"Sorry, it's just...back when we first met, you never would have even humored me by racing at all, let alone cheating like that," the girl explained. "You've really loosened up a bit since then, haven't you?"
"I suppose," Alain shrugged. "When I was working for Lysandre, I guess I always just felt more...on edge." He turned towards the doorway to Professor Sycamore's lab, and rung the doorbell. "After everything that's happened...it's nice to be able to relax a little. But now it's time to-"
Whatever Alain was about to say was cut off by the door opening.
"Alain! Mairin! Welcome back!" The professor greeted. "It's great to see you again!"
"It's nice to see you again too, Professor," Alain returned.
"How was the trip? Did you run into any trouble?"
"Nope!" Mairin denied.
"It was a pretty quiet trip," Alain confirmed.
"Well, come on in!" Then professor stepped to the side, waving them in. "I'm sure you'd like to see the lab again!"
"Where are Sophie and Cosette?" Alain asked, noting now suspiciously empty the lab was, as he and Mairin sat down at Augustine's table.
"They're off doing some important research in the mountains," Sycamore explained as he set out some snacks, mostly consisting of tea and cookies, as well as some Lumiose Galettes.
"How come you're not with them, then?"
"I had a few more things to take care of first, and then when I was about to leave, something else came up," the professor sighed, thinking of the pink-haired girl that had dropped in the night before he was planning to leave. "They contacted me this morning and said they'd finished up and will be back tomorrow afternoon, so it'd be pointless to leave now."
"I guess the life of a Pokémon Professor is pretty busy, huh?" Mairin chuckled, in between bites of a Galette.
"It is," Sycamore agreed, "but it all worked out for the best, I think. How has life been for you guys?"
"It's been great!" the sole female of the group shouted. "We managed to find a cave filled with stones just like the Legendary Giant Rock!"
"...We really need a better name for that," Alain muttered. "But yes. Near the Reflection Cave, we found another cavern lined with stones that gave off energy similar to the Giant Rock. Not as powerful, certainly, but similar enough to warrant further research."
"We also found some new Mega Stones while we were searching!"
"Not necessarily 'new.' It's already been known that they existed, I'd just never personally seen any before."
"You know what I meant," as she spoke, Mairin reached into her pack and slowly hefted out three large stones. "This one's for a Steelix, this one's for a Kangaskhan, and this one...we think this one's for a Latias!"
"Wow, impressive. Where did you find a Latiasite in Kalos?"
Unfortunately, whatever response the travelers would have given was interrupted by a happy growl, as a gigantic Dragon-type entered the room and nuzzled against Alain.
"Haha, it's good to see you too, Garchomp," Alain laughed, scratching the Land Shark Pokémon's head. "How have you been?"
The Dragon/Ground-type let off a happy trill, before backing up a bit, and pouting a bit towards the professor.
"Sorry Garchomp," he apologized with a smile, before reaching out to pet his partner himself. "I guess I should have told you when they got back."
Alain watched the exchange with a smile, but it dropped slightly when he felt his eyes wander towards the collar around Garchomp's neck. Or more specifically, the Garchompite that was embedded into it. Reflexively, Alain felt his wrist where he had once worn his own Mega Ring. He had given up his Key Stone and Charizardite X in the wake of the Kalos Crisis, but every day, he kept thinking back to that, wondering if it was the right decision...
"Alain..." Mairin's concerned voice shocked Alain out of his reminiscence, as he looked towards his traveling companion.
"Is something wrong?" Sycamore asked.
"Ah, no. Nothing," Alain insisted. "So, how have things been here at the lab?"
Augustine easily saw through the subject change, but nonetheless relented, telling some of the more humorous stories from the past few months. Many of which involved a peculiar girl with pink hair and a fiery temper.
A few hours later...
"-And that's when I walked in and found her, hanging from Drifblim by her shoelaces." Mairin laughed uproariously at Sycamore's tale of the newest assistant at the lab (who'd apparently decided to take on the Pokémon League herself, which is why she wasn't here today). Alain was also struggling to hold in laughter, although his was much more subdued.
"Well, enough about me," Augustine said, moving on. "Have you two got anything you'd like to share?"
"That's right," Alain remembered, shaking off the last of his laughter. "I actually came here today hoping to talk to all of my Pokémon at once."
"Here they all are," Professor Sycamore said, gesturing towards the gathered crowd of Pokémon. Alain pulled six PokéBalls out from his belt, releasing the Pokémon he had on his person to join the crowd. Contrary to what many trainers they'd talked to believed, the six Pokémon Alain used to face Ash were not the only Pokémon who owned, as many trainers who faced off against his Breloom or his Scolipede could attest to. While Alain didn't have as many as many dedicated collectors, certainly, he did have over two dozen Pokémon, and while Charizard was with him constantly, he rotated the rest of his team fairly often. Charizard stood by his side, while the rest of his Pokémon congregated in front of him. Alain took a deep breath, before addressing his Pokémon.
"Hello, everyone," he started. "I'm going to start by thanking you all for what a great help you've been, and how well you've been handling this. I know it can't have been easy moving from Lysandre Labs' climate controlled environments to this lab, which while nice, is unfortunately more limited in nature." The younger trainer looked towards Professor Sycamore, who waved off his concern.
"It's fine. Continue."
Alain nodded, and did so.
"I'd also like to thank you all for what a great help you were during the Kalos League. Even for those of you who didn't end up getting a chance to fight, the fact that you were there means a lot to me."
Alain's Pokémon all let out a cacophony of noise, with meanings varying from 'you're welcome' to 'get to the point,' but they all quieted down as their trainer continued.
"That brings me to my next point. It's been a while since we won the Kalos League, and even while helping Professor Sycamore with his research, we've been training hard. And some day in the future, we're going to battle Ash again." The six Pokémon that had been there for that battle cheered in anticipation, remembering that as one of the most fun battles they'd ever had.
"That's why, when that day comes, I want to be ready to give Ash the greatest battle in either of our lives. Even greater than the last one. Of course, Ash has been getting stronger. I hear that he's been staying in the Alola Region recently, and is learning powerful new techniques called 'Z-Moves.' So of course, we'll need to challenge stronger opponents than ever before if we want to be properly prepared. Which is why, to that end..."
Alain paused for a moment, taking another deep breath, before declaring the rest of his statement.
"...We are going to challenge the Kalos Elite Four, and then Champion Diantha! And we are going to win!"
—
Hello, everyone! Now, instead of a regular chapter this week, instead we are giving you all a Side Story, written by Catboy41! Unlike his previous Team Rocket omake, this side story is 100% Canon, and occurred during Episode 5. You'll be seeing side-stories every so often, and this is the first. Now, onto the Q&A:
Pacer287: Trust me, you'll like the current arc we have planned.
MBenz4268: While we will be getting into that more as we go on, the short answer is yes. The Elite Four have bigger roles in the world than just being strong trainers in a castle.
See you all next time!
